12B
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
QUESTION PACK
Still I Rise
By Maya Angelou
1. Describe the speaker in lines 1-4 of the poem? What specific language supports your
description?
2: Why does the poet use the image of dust in line 4? How does this image contribute to the tone of lines 1-4?
3: What other images in the poem contribute to the poem’s tone? Explain the effect of each image.
4: The speaker poses 7 questions in the poem. What is the purpose/effect of these questions?
5: What is the effect of the repetition in the poem?
5: Who is the audience (the reader) for this poem? How does the speaker portray this audience?
7. Why do you think many people find the poem inspirational?
8. In what way can you identify with ‘Still I Rise”? Explain.
9. What dialect do the words and phrases like sassiness, ‘cause, and awful hard represent? What
connotation would the word sassiness have for the American slave owners of the 1600’s? For modern
readers?
10. The theme of the poem is about African Americans triumphing? How will/has this happened?
11. How could this poem apply to Canada’s aboriginal people?
12. What is the speaker determined will happen? Is it inevitable that the oppressed shall rise up and
become respected?
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Telephone Conversation
Wole Soyinka
The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. “Madam,” I warned,
“I hate a wasted journey—I am African.”
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.
“HOW DARK?” . . . I had not misheard . . . “ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?” Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfoundment to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis—
“ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?” Revelation came.
“You mean—like plain or milk chocolate?”
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wavelength adjusted,
I chose. “West African sepia”—and as an afterthought,
“Down in my passport.” Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. “WHAT’S THAT?” conceding,
“DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.” “Like brunette.”
“THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?” “Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused—
Foolishly, madam—by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black—One moment madam!”—sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears—“Madam,” I pleaded, “wouldn’t you rather
See for yourself?”
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12B
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
Telephone Conversation
By Wole Soyinka
1. Paraphrase what happens in this poem, and then state what you feel is the
poem’s theme.
2. Once the speaker understands what the woman wants to know, what does he
ask?
3. Why does the speaker tell the woman that he is African? By making this remark, what does he
reveal about his past experience?
4. Why do you think the prospective landlord asks these questions? What does she reveal about
herself in the course of the poem? What does the dialogue reveal about the man?
5. Explain the humorous double meaning of the speaker’s last question.
6. This poem dramatizes a battle. Who do you think finally wins, and why?
7. This poem is full of colors—and not just of skin. What colors do you see in the poem? What does
Soyinka want to communicate through these images of color?
8. What irony do you find in lines 23–26? What irony do you find in the description of the woman as
well-bred?
9. Since the speaker was prepared for prejudice, why do you think the woman’s question disturbs him
so much?
10. “Telephone Conversastion”is a satire, a type of writing that attacks and ridicules some social evil
or human weakness. What is Soynika mocking in this poem? One of the tools of the satirist is the
absurd comparison. How does the contrast between the speaker and the landlady contribute to the
satirical message?
11. Do you think satirical writing can help change people’s attitudes? What message do you think
Soyinka wants to get across in this poem?
12. If you faced this kind of discrimination, how would you react to it?
Writing Assignment ‘Satiric Dialogue’
Write a conversation where you as the one of the speakers is faced with racist, sexist or an ageist
perspective from the other speaker. The key to your assignment is to show the unfair nature of
the racism, ageism or sexism. Keeping in mind that satire should be subtle but still mocking and
ridiculing. 300 words Remember to follow dialogue rules